The Never Ending Journey
by Jetede
Summary: When his Konoha's destroyed, Naruto and Kyuubi decided to travel to multiple different realities. Searching for the perfect world, they both gained and gave much more along the way. AU, dimension travel Possible ItaNaru Smart and Powerful Naru
1. Chapter 1

**The Never-ending Journey**

A Naruto fanfic by Jetede

**Summary**: When his Konoha's destroyed, Naruto and Kyuubi decided to travel to multiple different realities. Searching for the perfect world, they both gained and gave much more along the way.

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**A/N**: I was watching Stargate SG:1 when I suddenly got this idea for the fanfic. It was the second time I watched the episode where 16 SG:1 teams from multiple realities got stranded on one base because of a deliberate wormhole effect caused by one of the alternate SG:1 trying to bring back a defense weapon back to their own universe/reality.

So I got the idea, what if Naruto and Kyuubi were doing the travel from one reality to a different one in order to find the perfect world for them? There are a lot of time-traveling Naruto fics in this site, and several different dimension or realities-related, but I don't think this particular idea has been used yet. I couldn't help it. I just had to pour this idea into writing. Don't worry, I haven't abandoned my other stories yet. In fact, I just updated **The Demon King** last night. I'm also in the process of writing the next chapter of **Horizon**. Bear with me, okay?!

Well, here goes. The story and plot development isn't by any means completed yet. So if you have any suggestions as to where you'd like the story to head to, by all means…please do write me the review. This is kind of my first attempt at writing something related to sci-fi. Hopefully you'll enjoy the story.

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A muffled groan was heard from within a small one-bedroom apartment in one of the lower districts of Konohagakure no Sato. Striking blue eyes fluttered open slowly. The owner of said eyes blinked his eyes several times before focusing on his surroundings.

'_I'm in my old apartment,'_ Naruto thought.

Uzumaki Naruto, the jinchuuriki of Konoha, human sacrifice and demon vessel of Kyuubi no Kitsune, the strongest of all bijuus, was currently laying on the hardwood floor of his kitchen. Naruto could feel a dull throbbing in his head and around his wrists. He tried to get up from his position on the floor, trying to lift himself up and to support his body with his hands, only to wince and fell back down. His wrists hurt when he tried to put pressure on his hands.

Naruto looked down to inspect his arms and found traces of blood around said wrists. Correct that—lots of blood around his wrists! He looked around him and realized that there were even more blood pooling around his body on the kitchen floor.

'_Damn. Are those all mine?'_ Naruto thought again. _'Kyuu, a little help here?'_ Not a few seconds after that, the blond jinchuuriki could feel the warmth of the demon fox's youki healing his body and providing him with extra strength. Small amounts of the red chakra were visible around his body.

'_Thanks, Kyuu.'_

'_**No problem, brat.'**_

Naruto tried lifting himself up again, being careful not to slip on the blood-soaked floor. He felt much better after Kyuubi gave him the youki. The pain around his wrists was now just a dull throb and his headache was almost gone as well.

'_Wow. Look at all the blood. I wonder what happened to me in this reality.'_ Naruto pondered after he sat up, leaning back to the low cupboards behind him. _'Suicide attempt, huh? I think we got ourselves a bad one this time, Kyuu.'_

'_**Hmmph, I can see that.'**_

It had been years since Naruto and Kyuubi made a pact with each other and declared a truce between them. _Their_ Konoha and the rest of _their_ Elemental Countries were destroyed after a major world war that involved all of the nations and also the Akatsuki. In _their__world_, the remaining members of the wretched organization managed to gather and extracted all bijuus except for Kyuubi, and even succeeded in controlling their powers.

The alliance between the nations was rather weak at that time. Relationships between each country were strained politically.

Eventually, war broke.

One thing lead to another, and before anyone realized, the whole continent was involved. The Akatsuki took that chance to wreak havoc in the lands. They unleashed the eight bijuus' power within the five major hidden villages—knowing that destroying the military power of each nation means that it would be easier to conquer the rest of the country.

Then, they got a better idea. Why do it one by one, if they could take over the whole world in one move?

The Akatsuki unleashed all eight bijuus _simultaneously_. Konoha, being the strongest village at that time, got three bijuus at once. Naruto and the Konoha Twelve, Tsunade, Jiraiya, and the rest of Konoha nins were hard pressed trying to defend their village from the onslaught of the demons and the rest of Akatsuki minions.

It was a massacre.

Naruto was then forced to make a deal with the Nine-tails to allow him have one hundred percent access to his chakra during the war. Kyuubi reluctantly agreed since his jailor's survival also meant his own. In the end, they managed to push back and defeated all the other eight bijuus.

The war started when Naruto was sixteen, just a few months after he managed to bring Sasuke back to Konoha. It ended the very same day Naruto turned eighteen. The victory came with a really expensive price: everything was decimated. No one survived. The whole continent had become a huge graveyard in less than two years. Naruto was the only survivor of the war, everyone else died.

Kyuubi realized that his jailor was breaking down. With literally nothing to hold on to in life, it was just a matter of time before Naruto completely gave up. The fox couldn't bear to see the blond teenager suffer like that. He had witnessed Naruto's life for the past eighteen years. He admitted that his vessel was strong. Naruto was a survivor. Kyuubi actually grew to respect the kit. Sure, the fox wanted to live, however by that point of time, what's the use of getting free out of his cage when there's literally nothing outside? The lands were already destroyed in the war. The kitsune decided then to help the blond shinobi whom he had started to regard as his own kit.

The fox proposed another deal to Naruto. Naruto would release the seal that contained the fox, resulting in them merging as one. Kyuubi, however, would be able to retain his consciousness within Naruto so they could still communicate inside the boy's mind. In return, the fox would sacrifice all of his chakra to the boy, giving him full access to the youki whenever he needed it. Naruto wouldn't need to ask permission before he used the chakra since technically it would be his. Kyuubi, however, could help him push and regulate the chakra from within his body whenever Naruto was in trouble or unable to pull it out himself. This was actually very rare and would only happen if Naruto was on the brink of death and could not concentrate on chakra control at all.

At first, Naruto refused to do it. It was only until Kyuubi brought up the topic of alternate-reality dimension travel that he eventually agreed to the deal. Naruto actually ran into the fox's cage and gave him a big hug after Kyuubi explained everything. That night, for the first time in years, Naruto wept in relief and hope—that he would be able to see a living Konoha and his friends again.

That night also marked the beginning of Naruto's never-ending journey of alternate-reality travel. The night Naruto turned eighteen was the start of his new life.

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That was what brought them to this point of the story—where Naruto found himself within his alternate-reality younger self, laying on his kitchen floor, bleeding to death.

Naruto started to inspect himself as he carefully stood up. He ignored the blood-soaked orange jacket and pants and slowly trudged toward the bathroom to look at the mirror there. He stepped on a low stool in front of the sink to reach the high mirror and inspected his reflection. His blond hair was covered and matted down with his blood, dying it red.

'_I'm guessing that I'm around six or seven in this world.'_

'_**Seems about right, kit.'**_

'_Gah! I'm so tiny. I'm a midget again, Kyuu!' _The fox snickered in amusement from within Naruto's mind.

'_**Oh c'mon, kit. We've been doing this several times already. You'll grow taller soon.'**_

'_I know, but I think this is the youngest one we've encountered so far. I wonder what happened to the Naruto in this world that would force him to try to commit suicide like that. Whatever it was, it must've been really bad.' _Naruto commented dejectedly. _'Is he still in there somewhere, Kyuu? Or is he already—'_

'_**He's still alive, don't worry.'**_

'_Hmm…I see.'_

'_**While you're accessing his memories, why don't you check around the apartment for more clues about where and when we are?'**_

'_I'll do that after I cleaned up.'_ Naruto nodded to Kyuubi's suggestion.

The blond jinchuuriki closed the bathroom door and took off his clothes. He decided to take a warm shower to clean himself up from the blood. As he stood under the showerhead, he started to access the memories of the Naruto whose body he currently inhabited in order to find any kinds of information about this new world.

Kyuubi and Naruto found out that by using the reality/dimension-travel jutsu, they were able to move from one reality dimension to another as a whole. Basically what the jutsu did was to convert them into some kind of a sub-molecular being made out fully of only chakra, soul and consciousness, and enabled them to travel from one plane of reality to the next.

It was somehow similar to how Kyuubi existed inside of Naruto all those years. He existed as a conscious 'blob' of chakra behind the seal on Naruto's stomach, without a physical body. Technically, Kyuubi's physical body was that of Naruto's—although he did not have any kind of control over it—the seal made sure of that. Naruto's travel jutsu turned him into something similar like that—thus enabling him to 'escape' from one reality to the other without the constriction of a physical body. It's a rather complicated technique to pull off and even Naruto himself did not fully understand the whole scientific explanation to the process—but what mattered the most was that it worked in the end, so everything was fine.

Every time he moved from one physical body in one dimension to another, he would temporarily replace the original consciousness that previously occupied the body. Naruto would have full access to the original's memories; therefore he was always able to avoid suspicion from acting differently from his other self. It was actually kind of fun to act differently from his real self and following the original owner's personality instead.

At the beginning of their dimension-travel journey, Naruto felt uncomfortable with the whole idea of temporarily replacing his other self's real consciousness. It was like stealing another's life. Kyuubi then explained to him that in a way, Naruto was not intruding nor was he stealing anything from anybody, since technically it was himself. Kyuubi explained that although there may have been multiple different consciousnesses that exist throughout the different realities, they were all in essence, still Naruto, and that although there were different physical bodies, there's only one soul.

At that time, Naruto argued with the fox by saying that if there really was only one soul for all these different dimensions, then why was it that the rest of Konoha was still alive in that reality, while in his original one they were all dead. Kyuubi could only answer him with a cryptic sentence: _**'Now that, would be the mystery of the universe, wouldn't it, Kit? Only God knows the answer to that.'**_ In the end, Naruto stopped arguing with the fox and gave up.

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After shower and some memory-searching, Naruto looked around in his apartment for more clues. He found out that today was October 10. It was his seventh birthday.

'_That explained the suicide attempt, I guess. The villagers probably went over the line and tortured my other self mentally, and physically, considering all these scars all over my body—and very badly too—that he could not take the pressure anymore. It was always the worst during my birthday.'_ Naruto sighed. _'The 'me' in this reality is really weak.'_

'_**Well, that's about to change, now, isn't it, Naruto?'**_ said Kyuubi.

'_Damn right it is, dattebayo!' he laughed inwardly._ _'Ne, Kyuu, I know we've never tried this before, but it is possible to wake my other self's consciousness while we're here, right? I mean, it would've been much better if instead of working on improving the Naruto in this world's life actively, like how we've always done it—we could work passively from within his mind.'_

'_**Humm, I see what you mean. You want to help this kid from within, just like what I did to you, huh?'**_

'_Kyuu, you never did help me in my childhood. You only taunted me constantly to release the seal, you overgrown furball!' _Naruto retorted jokingly.

'_**Hey! I resent that! I helped you with my chakra, didn't I?'**_

'_Pssh! Only after I demanded rent from you!'_

'_**Hmmph!'**_

'_But seriously though, will we be able to do that?'_

'_**Well, it is possible, I think. In order to do that, we have to 'wake' your other self up. That means we'll have to search for the representation of your other self's consciousness within his mind. He's probably locked himself somewhere within one of the doors.'**_

'_I guess we could do that later. Let my other self rest mentally in there. He's been through so much. Even the villagers in our reality were not this ruthless. Damn them!'_ Naruto complained in his mind. _'—wait a sec—Kyuu, is that—?'_

Naruto was currently looking at one particular memory bubble in his mind, while physically in the real world, he was sitting down on his bed, toweling his hair.

'_**Well I'll be damned! Who knows that the weasel actually have a heart.'**_

Both Naruto and Kyuubi were currently watching one of little Naru's memories from the year before. Lil' Naru was sitting under a huge tree in the forest just outside of the west wall of Konoha in a fetal position, his body bruised and bloody from recent abuse. It was raining and lil' Naru was shivering from the cold. He put his arms around his legs, trying to preserve his body heat as best as he could. That was when he felt someone approaching him. Naruto could feel his other self stiffened in fear of the approaching stranger.

From behind the tree he was laying under, slightly to the right, appeared an eleven-year-old Uchiha Itachi. He was wearing a chuunin vest around his standard Uchiha attire. Naruto and Kyuubi witnessed how Itachi slowly and carefully approached lil' Naru and eventually managed to coax him out of his defensive gesture, even if only slightly. The stoic Uchiha actually hugged and carried the small jinchuuriki away from the rain.

'_Oh my God! I can't believe I just saw the Uchiha Itachi care for someone and that someone was my other self!'_

'_**Well, this is an alternate universe; the Itachi in this world may not be as evil as the one we knew.'**_

Naruto sighed. _'I know. But, it's just so…unbelievable!'_

Both jinchuuriki and bijuu stayed quiet for the next few minutes as they watched Itachi taking care of lil' Naru in his apartment.

'_Ne, Kyuu. Why is it that we're able to witness these memories in 3-D? It's as if we're there inside the room or around the area as the scenes unfolded. I mean, we even 'materialized' within the 'world' and could actually walk around in it as we looked through the memories.'_

'_**Humm, I believe it's because of me, kit. Although I've been inside you all this time, I was always aware from the beginning. I could see and feel what you felt from within, and because of my heightened senses, I was able to 'sense' what's happening around you. These senses somehow were then turned into a visual representation inside your memory. It's like watching a movie from an omniscient point of view basically,'**_ answered the fox. _**'The same thing should apply to my other selves. Since they're inside your other selves, we're able to watch the memories that way.'**_

'_I see. That makes a lot of sense actually.'_ Naruto muttered in understanding. He continued skimming through the rest of lil' Naru's memories and witnessed how his other self was developing a sort of friendship with Itachi.

He felt a slight pang in his heart as he looked at their friendship. The Itachi that he knew of was evil and in a way, one of the main reasons as to why his world was destroyed. To see the weasel so kind and innocent in a way caused him some mixed feelings toward the elder Uchiha. However, it still made him wonder as to where the elder Uchiha brother were when lil' Naru attempted to kill himself.

Once again Naruto wondered how badly had the villagers treated lil' Naru if the Naruto of this world still tried to commit suicide although he had someone like Itachi to hold on to.

'_Just what the hell did this Konoha actually do to my other self?'_ Naruto was mad. Even Kyuubi was moving restlessly inside his mind in reaction to the blond jinchuuriki's anger. Outside his body, Kyuubi's youki were leaking through from his _tenketsu_ points, while the pupils of his eyes turned into slits and started to turn violet, going towards red.

'_**Kit. Calm down. Your chakra is spiking. You don't want to attract any suspicion toward yourself right now.'**_ Naruto slightly calmed down after Kyuubi's reminder. He retracted his chakra and his eyes turned back to their original blue color while the pupils turned back to their rounded shape.

'_Sorry about that, Kyuu-nii. I'm okay now.'_

Not even a moment later, there was a knock on the front door.

'_Shit! Did someone feel that chakra spike just now?' _Naruto panicked. _'Kyuu, what should I do?'_

'_**Calm down. It's probably just the old man checking in on you or something. Didn't that Sarutobi use to check on you when you were little?'**_

'_You're right. I should probably get the door to avoid further suspicion.'_

'_**That would be the wise move,'**_ replied Kyuubi. In reality, however, the fox was frowning from inside Naruto. There's something about the chakra signature of the person just outside Naruto's apartment that felt familiar. It did not feel like the Sandaime Hokage's chakra though. Kyuubi was slightly worried.

Naruto unlocked the bolts on his door and opened the door slowly. He peeked through the small opening on the door to see someone he never expected to be there.

"Naruto-kun, are you alright? I felt your chakra as I was walking outside just now."

There, standing in front of his door, was none other than Uchiha Itachi in his ANBU attire. His weasel mask was hanging on one side of his face, exposing his obsidian eyes, sharingan inactivated.

Naruto could only stand there in surprise, gaping at the younger-looking Uchiha. He gasped as Itachi reached down and grasped both of his lower arms and turned them so his still scarred wrists were facing up. Naruto winced subconsciously since the flesh around them was still tender.

"Naruto-kun, what happened to your wrists?" Itachi asked again.

'_Oh shit!'_

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(TBC)

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**A/N**: Well, there ya go: another Naruto fanfic from me. Tell me what you think about it okay? I would also appreciate it if you could give me suggestions about the different worlds Naruto and Kyuubi are going to travel into. This is going to be an alternate-reality dimension hopping story, so Naruto is not going to stay in one world. Your suggestions could heavily influence the flow of the story, so write me those reviews!

**By the way, should I make this into ItaNaru?** Tell me what you think, ok?!


	2. Chapter 2

**The Never-ending Journey**

**Chapter 2**

A Naruto fanfic by Jetede

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**A/N:** Wow! I can't believe people actually love this story. Thank you for all your reviews so far. Almost all of you asked for this to be ItaNaru. If you have a strong reason as to why I shouldn't make this ItaNaru, please tell me now. 

There was some confusion about some Japanese terms I used in the last chapter. The term _'youki'_ is the opposite / counterpart of _'ki'_. Basically it's living energy, or like what in the Naruto world describe as chakra. _'Youki'_ basically means demon's _ki_, while the word _'youkai'_ literally means demon. Since there's believed to be many types of demons, sometimes (depending on the context of the story as well), demons are called _oni_, while the word _mononoke_ is used to describe some kind of other monster/evil spirit. In **Kyou Kara Maou**, the demon tribe are called _mazoku_, that's why the demon king is called the _MaOu_ (_'Ou'_ or _'Oh'_ means king or emperor). Hopefully this explanation helps!

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**The story so far:** _Naruto and Kyuubi arrived onto a new dimension to find the Naruto of that reality on the brink of his death because of blood loss. They also found out the friendship lil' Naru shared with the Uchiha prodigy, Uchiha Itachi from his memories. Not a few moments later, said prodigy landed outside of Naruto's apartment._

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Naruto blinked and continued gaping at Itachi who was standing right in front of his door. Although he did not actually show it on the outside, he was panicking in the inside. Of all the possibilities, he definitely did not expect the Uchiha to visit his apartment. Currently, the said Uchiha was still holding firmly, yet gently onto his arms, carefully avoiding the tender flesh of his wrists. Itachi frowned and narrowed his eyes as he focused on the horizontal scars that slashed through the arteries. In a blink of a second, he let go of the arms and pushed his way into the apartment. Naruto looked inside and saw Itachi standing next to his kitchen, looking down towards the floors with even a deeper frown on his forehead.

'_Damn it. I haven't cleaned up the kitchen yet,'_ groaned Naruto inwardly. _'Now how am I supposed to explain this to him?' _

Naruto closed the front door and started fiddling with the hem of his shirt with his left hand. His right hand was subconsciously rubbing on the left wrist, feeling the scar there. Itachi looked back towards Naruto and did not miss the unconscious gesture the younger boy made. He sighed and slowly made his way towards the boy. Itachi crouched down in front of Naruto who was gazing down nervously on the floor, trying to avoid the older Uchiha's questioning eyes.

"Naruto-kun," Itachi said softly. He brought his hand up to Naruto's chin. Naruto visibly flinched. He wasn't used to having the older Uchiha so close to him in such a kind gesture since all the other Uchiha Itachi he knew from the other realities were evil. Naruto was feeling really nervous in the inside. It didn't matter that his real self was already twenty years old, which means he was older than this Itachi; it didn't matter that he was technically much more powerful than said Uchiha, and even more powerful than several Hokages combined if he tried hard enough—he was still nervous having to face this strangely caring Uchiha Itachi.

'_Is this how Itachi was, before he massacred his clan?'_ Naruto thought. He knew he had to be careful not to expose himself in this reality. The result would not be pretty. He really did not want to be locked inside a four by four, white-washed, locked, rectangular room of the Konoha Asylum or behind the chakra-absorbing bars of the high-security prison of the ANBU headquarters eight storey underground. Luckily he did not have to try so hard since the older boy misunderstood his nervous gesture as guilt from the suicide attempt.

"Naruto-kun, please look at me." Naruto complied and slowly looked up toward Itachi's face. "Naruto-kun, you don't have to be afraid of me. I'm not mad at you," Itachi said again. Naruto was slightly amazed at Itachi's soft and caring voice.

The Uchiha was telling the truth. He really wasn't angry at the young boy, but at the village. The stupid village and its shallow inhabitant for destroying such an innocent soul just because said soul was condemned and sacrificed on the day of his birth to be the jailor of the strongest demon that walked the earth—so strong was their hatred towards the boy that they actually succeeded in driving the little boy into such despair that he thought it was much better for the world if he simply did not exist. Yes, Itachi had figured out what the younger boy attempted to do earlier that day; the scars, the blood on the floor, and the way the blond jinchuuriki flinched every time he's touched were all obvious hints as to what had happened. Itachi narrowed his eyes in concentration as he observed the face of the boy in front of him.

Itachi knew about Kyuubi being sealed inside Naruto since the beginning and he also knew about how bad the villagers always treated the younger boy, especially on his birthdays. He put two and two together and made his own conclusion: something horrible must've happened that involved the village and Naruto earlier, that the boy could not take it anymore and eventually tried to end his own life. Itachi also realized by looking at the amount of blood on the floor, that the fox probably foiled that attempt and managed to heal the boy's wounds and saved his life. If it was a different, normal child, he or she would've been dead already from losing so much blood. Alas, Naruto was far from being normal.

Itachi held Naruto by the shoulders and slowly lead him towards the living room just across of the front door. Naruto's apartment was small: his living room and kitchen were only separated by a small patch of counter that also served as dining table. On the wall straight across from the kitchen were two doors: one leading towards Naruto's bedroom, while the other, the bathroom. The raven-haired almost-teen gently lead Naruto down to sit on the old, tattered couch. He kneeled in front of the boy.

Although he kept his expression neutral, if slightly softer than usual, Itachi was really worried on the inside. Naruto was really quiet and subdued all the time. It's really unusual for the Kyuubi holder to be that quiet since he's usually very loud. He was slightly suspicious of the seven-year-old boy's weird behavior, but dismissed the thought by thinking that it was the effect of the failed suicide. The Sharingan-wielder sighed inwardly. He was really getting pissed off at the village to the point that he felt like committing a massacre towards those wretched, oblivious, stupid villagers for putting his precious friend to such a state. Now that was an idea. Itachi stored that thought in the corners of his mind for later analysis.

"Naruto-kun, do you want to tell me what happened?" Itachi asked carefully. Naruto shook his head negatively. Itachi sighed and pulled the younger boy closer for a hug. Naruto stiffened.

'_What the hell! Kyuu, a little help here?'_

'_**Don't ask me what to do, kit. You're the human, not me. I'm honestly also a little freaked out with how different this Itachi is acting compared to the other ones.'**_

'_Gee…thanks a lot, you useless furball.'_ Naruto grumbled in his mind. _'Gaah! Consequences be damned. I'll just wing it.'_ Naruto threw his small arms around the older boy's shoulders and hugged him back. He was clinging on the back of Itachi's shirt, his head leaning on the older boy's right shoulder. For that several moments, Naruto actually forgot about everything else. In the past, during his real own childhood, before Iruka, Naruto had never had any physical contact other than the abusive 'touch' of the villagers, scarily similar to what this reality's Naruto was experiencing almost everyday.

'_Itachi feels really nice...smells good too…jasmine, huh?' _ he thought. _'—wait a sec! What the hell was I thinking? This is Uchiha-freakin-Itachi here! Damn it Naruto…pull yourself together!'_ Naruto swore he could hear the fox snickering quietly in his head. If he didn't know any better, he would say that Kyuubi was enjoying his predicament at that moment. Damn sadistic demon fox. But then again, it did feel good to be hugged like that.

The said demon was really having fun inside the depth of his mind. _**'This is an interesting development.'**_ Kyuubi snickered again and went farther into the darker corner of Naruto's mind, planning and plotting something. _**'…now, let's see if this'll work…'**_ he mused quietly to himself. Outside, Naruto never noticed whatever Kyuubi said.

'_Mmhh…I'm feeling sleepy all of a sudden…must be from the blood loss.'_ The blond jinchuuriki yawned, still leaning on Itachi's embrace. Noticing that the younger boy was rather pale compared to his usual coloring, Itachi realized that Naruto was currently still low on blood. He lifted the blue-eyed fox-boy up easily as if he weighed nothing—which he probably was, since Naruto's body was much smaller and too thin compared to other kids his age—and slowly stood up. Naruto would've protested had he not been feeling really tired, but leaned even further into the embrace instead. He tightened his hold around the older boy's neck while his legs automatically wound themselves around Itachi's hips. It was a subconscious gesture to avoid falling down from the lift-up.

Itachi slowly trudged his way towards the boy's bedroom with Naruto safely in his arms. He opened the door with his right hand while his left was balancing the smaller boy in his hold, being really careful not to drop him to the ground. Once inside the room, Itachi turned to the left and put Naruto down on his single bed by the window and covered him with the blanket gently.

He sat on the edge of the bed and reached up to the boy's forehead, caressing and parting the blond tresses that fell on top of his eyes. Naruto was still half-awake at that point. He let Itachi's roaming hands across his face since it felt good and soothing. Besides, he was too damn tired to do anything about it. Naruto was falling asleep slowly. Just a moment before darkness consumed him, Naruto faintly felt a pair of soft lips caressing his cheeks and forehead, and lastly on his own lips.

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Uchiha Itachi was troubled. He was just on his way back from a long two-month mission and was walking towards Uzumaki Naruto's apartment to wish the boy a happy birthday, when he felt a spike of chakra from inside of the boy's apartment. Not only that, but he also found out that the said boy had just recently attempted to kill himself by cutting on the arteries on his wrists, if the tender and newly formed skin around said wrists were an indication, and there's a huge pool of blood on the floor of the boy's kitchen. This was not a good day. He was really pissed off and felt like killing someone. He wondered if it's a good idea to channel his anger by killing his arrogant clansmen. They were getting rather restless even more power hungry lately. 

Itachi was currently watching over the blond jinchuuriki as he slept. He was pondering over what he had just done not a few minutes earlier. He furrowed his brows as he gazed at the sleeping fox-boy.

'_Why did I kiss him? Damn it, Itachi. He's only seven years old. He's Sasuke's age and five years younger than me.' _Itachi sighed. He was still sitting on the edge of Naruto's bed, touching and caressing the boy's head and playing with the blond locks. _'Bright, blond hair, just like the sun—ugh… I'm turning into a pedophile like Orochimaru! This is not good!'_

The Uchiha really didn't know when and why he started to get attracted towards the blond. It wasn't because of how Naruto's hair glinted brilliantly when under the sun or because of how his eyes reflected the clear sky. Really, it also wasn't because of how bright and soothing the boy's smiles were, no matter what happened to him before. Itachi wasn't attracted to Naruto because of how the young boy oozes purity and innocence. Neither was it because of how those deep blue pools of Naruto's eyes captivated and pierced his very soul when Itachi looked at them. It wasn't, right?

Itachi sighed again. His right hand never stopped caressing the blond strands of hair. Naruto's hair was actually much softer than they looked, he realized. The boy just looked so innocent and peaceful as he slept. There was no way that such an innocent, young soul could be the demon, why couldn't the villagers understand that? Fools, the lot of them. Didn't they realize that if Naruto really was the Kyuubi, they would've died nine times over already from all the abuse he went through? Heck, they probably wouldn't have been able to touch the boy at the first place.

The young Weasel ANBU didn't know how long he had been sitting at Naruto's bedside, watching the blond jinchuuriki sleep. By the time he realized that time had passed, Naruto was unconsciously frowning deeply while he was tossing and turning in his sleep. His hair was matted down with sweat and he was mumbling something under his breath.

'_A nightmare,'_ Itachi thought.

"…negai, onegai… please don't. Let me go…" Naruto said in his sleep. The tossing became more violent while Naruto kept repeating 'no's and 'please don't's more vocally. Not long after, the young boy started screaming.

'_Shit! This is not an ordinary nightmare,'_ Itachi panicked. He leaned forward and started whispering by Naruto's ear while caressing the side of his face gently.

"Sshushh…Naruto-kun, it's okay. You're safe. I'm here. No one is going to hurt you while I'm here."

Itachi's gentle whispering worked only a bit. Naruto's screaming had stopped; however the blond jinchuuriki was still tossing and turning in his sleep. The screaming had been replaced by quiet whimpering. Itachi was still leaning above Naruto's sleeping figure while caressing Naruto's face and hair when all of a sudden, Naruto opened his red, slitted eyes.

'_What the…'_

"No! Get away from me!" exclaimed Naruto. The boy sat up abruptly on the bed and pushed Itachi off the bed. Or at least, he tried to. Naruto instinctively leaned back to the headboard by the corner of the wall and pulled his legs up and curled up in a fetal position, resting his chin on his knees. Naruto looked like a scared animal. Itachi was confused by the boy's reaction and even more with the fact that Naruto's eyes were now red and slitted like a fox. It was as if Naruto didn't recognize him.

'_**...it...Kit! Kit! Damn it, Naruto! Pull yourself together!'**_

'_Kyuu-chan?'_

'_**Yes! Finally! I've been trying to wake you up for a while, now. You were having a nightmare, kit. Well, not exactly a nightmare…I think those were fragments of lil' Naru's memories that you saw while you were sleeping. Damn it! I can't believe the villagers would actually do such awful things to a kid. Even demons don't treat our young like that. What kind of sick human being would rape and torture a seven-year-old?'**_

'_It felt so real. It was like I was there. Oh God…no wonder the me in this reality tried to kill himself like that. All those torture…'_

"Naruto-kun?" Naruto looked up to the Uchiha in surprise. "It's okay, Naruto-kun. I'm not going to hurt you. It's me, Itachi." There was a flash of recognition in Naruto's eyes after that sentence and the red, slitted eyes gradually turned back to their normal blue state, although there was still slight fear in those eyes.

"Itachi…"

"Shussh…it's okay. You were having a nightmare, Naruto-kun. I'm here now."

"Itachi…" Naruto reached up to the Uchiha and threw himself onto Itachi's chest. Naruto ignored the fact that his real self was actually older than the Uchiha, or that in other realities, Itachi was his enemy. The smaller boy climbed on top of his lap and clung to the older boy's shirt like a lifeline. Itachi put his arms around the blond and rocked him back and forth while whispering soothing words to calm the younger boy down.

Inside his mind, though, the Uchiha was troubled. He knew Naruto wasn't having a normal nightmare. Whatever it was, Itachi realized that it must've been related to what happened earlier. And then, there was the eye factor. Those eyes…

'_It was the Kyuubi's.'_

Things have just become even more complicated.

---------------

(TBC)

* * *

**A/N**: So…what do you guys think? 


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